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Adventure Progress – Week 2018_05

In the last week we achieved quite a bit but in retrospect it seems like we achieved nothing.

Well, that’s not entirely true. The last week has seen us all involved with the annual Alderney pantomime. This year was Sleeping Beauty and the Beasts. By all accounts it was a cracker ! And we certainly had a blast putting it together and the endless rehearsing of course left us parched and in need of a soothing pint or two.

Anyway….back to “Ragtime”, our adventure project yacht.

A bit of rewiring….

Although she has been well looked after, “Ragtime” has had many adventures. Before we start our adventure, one of my missions is to update a ‘little’ of the wiring. Lucie often comments that I get a little carried away. I am not sure I understand what she means…..

Some panel work….

What I love most about “Ragtime” is the beautiful wood work. Although I suspect that I may grow to regret that statement when it comes to annual varnishing time. But isn’t that a job usually undertaken by the first mate ?

I may be sleeping in the dinghy again if I am not careful.

On a personal level we also achieved some headway on preparation.

With these dark winter night and no electricity on board at the moment. Lucie and I have been planning the sunny summer months ahead and roughly where we want to be at the end of the year.

We do however have little plans so far.

We know we will leave end of May. We know we plan to head south. And we also know we would like to winter the boat in southern Portugal.

Apart from that we plan to explore new places, meet new friends and have many parties on board.

After the boat upgrade. The transition between ARoamer and Ragtime. We have some getting used to to do.

With ARoamer only weighing 1ton, little windage and excellent manoeuvrability. 17 ton Ragtime with high top sides and limited manoeuvrability will take some getting used to.

We plan to spend the last few weeks before we leave doing practice sails, manoeuvring in tight spaces and man over boards.

In spring we plan to get a competent crew and a safety boat together for an afternoon of man overboards and setting off of life rafts to prepare for the worst. We might wait a few months for the water to warm up a bit though!

It is always hard trying to balance work, annual maintenance to a boat, preparing a separate boat for a huge adventure, preparing ourselves for the adventure and remembering to set time aside for ‘date night’. Yep, gotta keep the crew motivated 😉

Regrettably, I have not spent much time on my pride and joy this last couple of weeks. My Wharram Tiki 26, ‘A-Roamer’, sits patiently waiting for my attention.

Until next week…

Jake and Lucie

Not enough room to swing a Cat

Many people think this saying is literal ie having enough room to swing a cat around by its tail. Heavens forbid !!

On naval ships of old, the entire crew was required to witness floggings for defaulters at the Captain’s Table. So the crew would crowd around the deck space which meant that the Bosun’s Mate had little room to swing his cat o’nine tails whip.